HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
An 18th-century Olde Towne Portsmouth home converted to a yellow fever hospital in the 1850s, where a sea captain's ghost is said to still climb the stairs to the attic where his daughter died.
218 Glasgow Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Private residence; exterior visible from public sidewalk only. No interior access.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Olde Towne Portsmouth sidewalk; exterior drive-by only
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1780 · 18th-Century Olde Towne Portsmouth Home · Yellow Fever Makeshift Hospital 1850s · Olde Towne Historic District
The Gaffos House at 218 Glasgow Street is one of Portsmouth's older surviving residences, dating to the 18th century in a neighborhood now listed as part of the Olde Towne Historic District. The street-level Federal-era architecture is typical of the merchant and maritime class homes that lined Portsmouth's residential blocks during the port's prosperous antebellum decades.
During the yellow fever epidemic of the 1850s, which would climax with the catastrophic 1855 outbreak that killed roughly 10 percent of Portsmouth's population, private homes throughout the neighborhood were pressed into service as makeshift hospitals and care stations. The Gaffos House was among them, serving the overflow of patients that overwhelmed official facilities during the epidemic.
A sea captain associated with the house had a daughter who contracted yellow fever and died in the attic during one of these epidemic years. The specific year and the captain's name are not confirmed in published historical records; the account circulates through Portsmouth ghost walk tradition and regional haunted-site documentation.
Sources
The primary haunting account at the Gaffos House is a recurring auditory experience rather than a visual one. Longtime residents of the property over the decades have reported hearing the front door open and then heavy, deliberate footsteps ascending the staircase toward the attic. The sound pattern — door, then stairs, then silence — is described as consistent and specific rather than generic house-settling noise.
The tradition identifies the sound as the ghost of the sea captain whose daughter died in the attic during a yellow fever epidemic. The narrative holds that the captain, who may have been away at sea during his daughter's illness and death, continues to make the journey home and up the stairs as he would have done in life, unaware that the attic he climbs toward no longer holds her.
VirginiaHauntedHouses.com and NeptuneGhosts.com both document this account, which is the best corroboration available for a private residence with no official venue presence. The accounts are consistent in their core detail — door, stairs, attic — though neither publication is a primary source. Events are described as infrequent but persistent across multiple generations of residents.
Notable Entities
The Gaffos House at 218 Glasgow Street is a privately owned historic home in Portsmouth's Olde Towne Historic District. It is visible from the public sidewalk and appears on Portsmouth's ghost walk circuit as a notable stop for its yellow fever history and associated haunting legend. Visitors should respect the private residential nature of the property.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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